Real estate disrupters come and go. Many of these new “disrupters”, some coming here from the USA will offer you a quick estimate using an algorithm without doing a market analysis. Are they overlooking the emotional aspect of selling a home and are they just order takers? The market in the last couple of years was booming. You would list a house and it would sell within days. Now in some areas, realtors need to brush up on their negotiating skills and a lot of that comes with experience and training.

Studies were done in the USA and those sellers not using traditional Realtors, sold on average 6-8% lower than an MLS sale for a similar property. American real estate and Canadian real estate are not the same. Through our nationwide listing system Realtor.ca homebuyers and sellers are able to see virtually all listings in the country. Go south of the border and you see only the company’s listings. It is no wonder that third-party, non-Realtor websites dominate America. The road ahead is going to be exciting as we adapt and respond to the changing times!

Freehold listings continued to climb last week by as much as 45% with the central core leading the way and the bulk of the new listings were listed between $1.5M and $3M. The number of sold freehold properties did not see an increase from the previous week, but of the properties sold 58% sold over the asking price. A similar market exists in the resale condo sector.

New listings were up 38% week to week but not much change in the number of condos sold. Sales happening at or above the list price seem to be hovering in the 40-45% range, which we consider to be healthy.